As children spend more time on the Internet, the risk of children communicating with online predators increases. Predators take advantage of the freedom of communication and relative anonymity of the Internet to prey on these children. Most Internet applications lack the ability to control with whom a child communicates.
Some portable memory devices are configured to resemble characters, and may be used with personal computers to play games. Some online systems permit communication between users using various applications such as instant messaging, email, and social networking involving personal web pages. Other online systems incorporate systems and methods to ensure trusted communications.
Examples of online games with tokens are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,974; U.S. Pat. No. 6,423,892; U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,501; U.S. Pat. No. 6,631,098; U.S. Pat. No. 6,763,226; U.S. Pat. No. 6,979,210; U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,636 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,151,664, and Publication Nos. US20040003150; US20040043806; US20060287110 and WO0112285. Examples of dolls associated with computer applications are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,602; U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,010 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,773,325. Examples of portable memory device network authentication are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,051, as well as in Publication Nos. US20060041934 and US2006130129. The disclosures of the above-referenced patents and publications are incorporated herein by reference.